Iain Gray Freelance Writer

Taxi To The Dark Side - Review

Does one have to compromise one’s moral integrity to win a war? The Bush administration certainly thought so, according to this quietly furious film.

Taking the death in US custody of a young, probably innocent, Afghan taxi driver as its starting point, Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary exposes America’s legal side-stepping of the Geneva Convention, which ultimately led to the now infamous torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

The film asks if this was just the work of a “few bad apples” or whether it was indicative of a military culture of hatred and ignorance encouraged by officers and politicians, and fuelled by the desire for revenge after the horrors of 9/11.